Let’s face it, the only evidence that Christ ever lived is the Bible. For all anyone knows Christ was just an ideal, a vehicle to make a point; but regardless of whether he was a real person or not to believe in Christ you have to believe the Bible.

If you want to pick and choose what you want to believe out of the Bible, you might as well just toss the whole thing. If you can’t find some splinter group under the loose umbrella term “Christian” that believes roughly the same thing you do, then you’re probably doin’ it wrong anyway. Just make up your own religion and give the whole Christ thing a rest. Seems like these “Christians” would be a lot happier that way.

I do agree with Anne Rice about wanting to get away from the Christians though, they are a backstabbing lot.

Hate to burst the enthusiastic bubble… but belief in Jesus is a religious belief. I’ve noticed over the years an effort by some Christians to try to suggest that it is not.

Non-denominational or liberal Christianity are a copout. It is a bit difficult to claim to be a believer in Christ but not a believer in the community of Christians. Jesus did not write or select the books of the New Testament; the early Christian Church did. If Christians or the Christian Church are wrong then perhaps the New Testament (your only link to Jesus) is as well.

The reality is that Christianity is as corrupt and bigoted as those who founded it. Christianity as we know it would have gotten nowhere without St. Paul and it was he who wrote the sexist, homophobic, pro-slavery bits of the New Testament. It was not Benedict XVI or Jerry Falwell. If you want to celebrate the ethical system of Jesus, as Jefferson did, go right ahead; but there is nothing original, much less supernatural, about his teachings. Merry Christmas…

.

If I could meet her in person, I would
love to say “Thank you Anne Rice –
for so very articulately stating what
I have felt in my heart for years” !!!!

One’s ‘Faith-in-Christ’ should IN NO WAY
be tied into the man-controlled ‘Religion’
that so many refer to as “Christianity”
(especially that apostate, psuedo-religious
political-movement called ‘evangelicalism’)

It took me forever to realize that my
relationship with God (as established
through Christ Jesus, God The Son) was
IN NO WAY dependent on the apostate
psuedo-religious movement sweeping
America in the name of the “church”.

If Christ were walking the earth today,
a lot of these same “religious” types
would be the first to demand that He
be ‘crucified’ — and based merely on
who He chose as FRIENDS (women,
gays, foreigners, immigrants, the poor,
the rejected, the downtrodden, the rich,
men, old, young, happy, sad, and so on).

The “evangelicals” (not to be mistaken
for TRUE FOLLOWERS of Christ) and
other “church” types have essentially
hijacked the Christian ‘Faith’ in order to
turn it into a mammon-worshipping,
power-mongering, “Religion” of hate.

These people are more akin to a system of
ANTI-CHRIST (i.e. “against”-Christ) than
to anything tied into WHO CHRIST IS.

Their evil has reached such profound levels
that even people who know and love Christ
are turned off from them and their words
(again proving these “church” types are
really nothing more than anti-Christ,
self-righteous Pharisees and are not
even remotely related to Jesus Christ).

Never again will I waste my time stepping
into the psuedo-religious social-club that
is known as “church” or associate myself
with the political-clique that is known as
‘christianity’ — because FROM NOW ON
– I realize that I do NOT “need” either
in order to have a relationship with MY
LORD JESUS CHRIST (in fact, those
two entities were actually ‘interfering’
with my relationship with God)

THROUGH CHRIST — GOD HAS OPENLY
EXPRESSED HIS LOVE TO ‘EVERYONE’
(no matter if rich, poor, gay, straight, male,
female, sickly, healthy and so on) — AND
CHRIST (not the so-called”church”) IS
‘THE DOOR’ and ‘THE WAY’ TO GOD!!

ALL ARE WELCOME TO APPROACH AND
TO ENTER THROUGH ‘THE DOOR’ TO GOD!!

NO ONE IS REJECTED BY JESUS CHRIST !!!

JESUS LOVED AND LOVES EVERYONE !!!

LET’S ALL TRY TO REMEMBER
THE BIBLE VERSE OF ‘JOHN 3:17’:

“For God did NOT send His Son
into the world – to condemn
the world, BUT that the world,
THROUGH HIM, might be SAVED !!!!”

JESUS CHIST – and *not* the institution known
as “the church” or the religion called “christianity”
— IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE!!!

LIKE MANY OTHER PEOPLE – I AM DONE
WITH THE CHURCH & WITH CHRISTIANITY
– AND FROM HERE ON OUT – MY FOCUS IS
ON (AND FAITH IN GOD RELIES IN) JESUS
CHRIST AND JESUS CHRIST ALONE !!!

.

So basically she wants to have her cake and eat it, too.

If the Jesus Christ of old were alive today, He probably wouldn’t subscribe to today’s various flavors of Christianity.

Whereas Jesus was chronicled as a kind, tolerant, forgiving kind of guy, a lot of Christianity talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the same walk as did Jesus.

People who say they’re Christian but don’t go to church seem akin to Rice’s viewpoint. Religion for many is a pretty personal concept, and if the groupthink of a church prompts its members to do things that go against the conscience of the individual, why shouldn’t the individual break from that group and choose to be Christian on their terms?

As long as they’re following the basic tenets, more power to them. If a God truly does exist, and in any way resembles the one which will supposedly judge people in the supposed afterlife, it seems a safer bet for them to be true to themselves than fall in line and goosestep with Christianity at large, fighting wars that are morally questionable, laying guilt trips on people who masturbate, or stomping out homosexuals as if they weren’t human beings like everyone else.

There are an awful lot of incredibly confused people out there (“Christian atheists”?!) — probably the majority of Americans who self-identify as “Christian” don’t fit any reasonable definition of the term. Look how many people claim to believe in things like reincarnation or ghosts, which are utterly incompatible with the Christian world-view.

In many cases, giving up the name “Christian” or some last feeble anchor of belief in Christ is simply too daunting — it’s the last step on the road to atheism, a step which many never feel comfortable taking. Since Rice was an atheist in the past, this is less likely to be so in her case. Maybe she really does reject only the present sociological implications of Christianity and yet still believes in God, but if so, she’s using terminology in a way that confuses her meaning.

Tim: good catch on the UCC.

It’s good to hear Ms. Rice publicly disavowing the socio-political trends of Christianity in North America. I could never identify with any of them, or how incredibly harsh and judgmental they always appeared to be.

I hope this means that Christianity is moving in a more mystical, internal direction. Most of the crazies can’t look in a mirror and be honest with themselves.

Jesus, whether he is fictional or not, was a vehicle for a lot of wise ideas that preceded him. I think, if he did exist, then, like Shakespeare, he was a talented person at the right place and time – the right intersection of influences – to pull it off.

As are we all, nowadays.

I believe it was on this very fine blog that Les passed on the dark mutterings of some bishop or religious aristrocracy: “People are becoming too educated. It’s taking them away from the Church.” (or words to that effect)

Making a bunch of uneducated peasants toe the line, wear the costumes, do the hokey-pokey (but only on certain days), hate these folks, eat the foods and pay us money worked for Christianity for centuries. The religious elite had the magic power of literacy, to name the big one, and everyone nodded their head. But, now folks like Ms. Rice are going “You can’t fargin’ seriously expect me to do listen to this twaddle, can you? Let’s hear your explanations!”

I’d accept Jesus in a paragraph listing ancient philosphers, but that would be the limit of my acknowledgement.

I understand what she is saying. I would recommend a book to her and anyone that shares her sentiment. The book is titled “Behold The Spirit:A study in the necessity of mystical religion” by the late great Alan Watts that he wrote back in 1946 and still holds true today probably more than ever.

Perhaps the United Church of Canada would appeal to her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Church_of_Canada